/sigh. No it wasn't. She bodied into Fowles. Being straight up and down doesn't matter for shit if you are moving toward the player you are defending. You need to already be in legal defensive position, or else you get dinged.

/sigh. No it wasn't. She bodied into Fowles. Being straight up and down doesn't matter for shit if you are moving toward the player you are defending. You need to already be in legal defensive position, or else you get dinged.

And that foul on Brunson is a great example of the same thing except on the other end.

I expected it as well. The Merc have a SLIGHT chance to win this game but the refs want to make sure they don't. All of a sudden the refs are calling all these fouls on the Merc in the 3rd qt. Doesn't surprise me at all. The Merc may not win this but they are still close.

They were going to lose to the Lynx anyway and it's just one game. If they are going to stay in the playoffs it's going to be squarely on DT's shoulders. Resting players is a standard NBA strategy and makes sense for an aging player. I'm going to wait and see if she continues to rest or if this was a strategic move to save her for the winnable games.

That would be a terrible attitude if in fact it was part of the reasoning.
The team with the older legs should be the ones worrying about the return matchup, especially when they're the ones who have flown twice, to Phoenix's once.
The Mercury have an irrationally large fear of the Lynx, and crap like this only serves to reinforce it IMO.

She had better not be participating in a meaningless All Star game if she's going to bail on a real game.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

The Mercury's red hot shooting in the first half, combined with our horrid shooting lead to that rough start for us. I believe at one point Phoenix was shooting like 60% and we were around 20%. Luckily it evened out in the second half and we got a handle on it.

Turner couldn't miss in the first half. She looked really impressive. I've started to think maybe she could make All-Rookie Team but I don't know if she has the stats yet to get there. No one else really stood out for me, but they played really well as a team for stretches.

Monty, Jia, and Plenette have been fantastic off the bench lately and I really hope that continues. No one could guard Syl.

toad455 wrote:

I find it interesting that Cayla George still isn't getting off the bench even without Griner & A. Robinson getting in foul trouble.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

How do we know the team agreed with this? Initially they didn't announce any reason for her missing the game. Makes it seem she just went AWOL. Maybe "rest" was just an excuse. Fans pay good money boo and yell insults at players like Taurasi. This denies them the chance for that.

We constantly have threads about ratings, attendance, etc - if the best players in the league can't both to show up for games, it seems foolish to think fans will.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

The raw number of games played must include the year-round total, which is clearly much more than 34 for these women. And it's also about how much recovery time there is between games. 34 games with two games a week is a lot different than 34 games with three or four games a week.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

The raw number of games played must include the year-round total, which is clearly much more than 34 for these women. And it's also about how much recovery time there is between games. 34 games with two games a week is a lot different than 34 games with three or four games a week.

I disagree that we have to take the full year into account. This is about playing in the WNBA. If they need to take a year off (or even part of a year off) more power to them. But the option exists, like all the Lynx elders, to not play overseas.

To compare it to the men, if they only played 34 games, do you think the coaches/owners would be okay with them taking days off when every game matters, because they played in some other league during the off season?

There are good reasons for players to rest in the WNBA, and there are legitimate arguments why this is bad. But the situations between the men and women are so different that I just feel using what the men do, especially in other sports, as an example for the women is problematic.

I mean, if we are going to use male sports, how about football? Would a coach be okay with a player taking a game off for rest, even though it is a much more violent and injury ridden sport?

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

The raw number of games played must include the year-round total, which is clearly much more than 34 for these women. And it's also about how much recovery time there is between games. 34 games with two games a week is a lot different than 34 games with three or four games a week.

I disagree that we have to take the full year into account. This is about playing in the WNBA. If they need to take a year off (or even part of a year off) more power to them. But the option exists, like all the Lynx elders, to not play overseas.

To compare it to the men, if they only played 34 games, do you think the coaches/owners would be okay with them taking days off when every game matters, because they played in some other league during the off season?

There are good reasons for players to rest in the WNBA, and there are legitimate arguments why this is bad. But the situations between the men and women are so different that I just feel using what the men do, especially in other sports, as an example for the women is problematic.

I mean, if we are going to use male sports, how about football? Would a coach be okay with a player taking a game off for rest, even though it is a much more violent and injury ridden sport?

I don't think the issue from the player's point of view is what league the games are played in, but rather the overall impact of the schedule on her body and earnings, both present and future.

It looks to me like a player like Taurasi plays around 70 games a year, counting playoffs, pretty much equally split between overseas and WNBA. She makes four times as much for the overseas game, from what I gather, so clearly missing those does not make financial sense in terms of her contract.

For a 25-year-old, a 70-game schedule seems reasonable; for a 35-year-old, it's pushing the limits. A 35-year-old playing the less demanding game of baseball or professional basketball will need to take some games off, and they do so more than younger players.

Sure, the WNBA can't be happy with Taurasi choosing to sit, but how can you blame an employee for choosing to skip games that pay one-quarter as much as other games? To which employer does she owe more?

If the WNBA wants players to play every game, they should be paying them as much to do so as their competition -- which for a variety of reasons they don't. But that's not Taurasi's problem ...

The football comparison doesn't really work, I don't think. The season is much longer in terms of the calendar and only has 18 or so games. Veteran players will often sit out a game, which would be comparable to sitting out two WNBA games.

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

The raw number of games played must include the year-round total, which is clearly much more than 34 for these women. And it's also about how much recovery time there is between games. 34 games with two games a week is a lot different than 34 games with three or four games a week.

I disagree that we have to take the full year into account. This is about playing in the WNBA. If they need to take a year off (or even part of a year off) more power to them. But the option exists, like all the Lynx elders, to not play overseas.

To compare it to the men, if they only played 34 games, do you think the coaches/owners would be okay with them taking days off when every game matters, because they played in some other league during the off season?

There are good reasons for players to rest in the WNBA, and there are legitimate arguments why this is bad. But the situations between the men and women are so different that I just feel using what the men do, especially in other sports, as an example for the women is problematic.

I mean, if we are going to use male sports, how about football? Would a coach be okay with a player taking a game off for rest, even though it is a much more violent and injury ridden sport?

I don't think the issue from the player's point of view is what league the games are played in, but rather the overall impact of the schedule on her body and earnings, both present and future.

It looks to me like a player like Taurasi plays around 70 games a year, counting playoffs, pretty much equally split between overseas and WNBA. She makes four times as much for the overseas game, from what I gather, so clearly missing those does not make financial sense in terms of her contract.

For a 25-year-old, a 70-game schedule seems reasonable; for a 35-year-old, it's pushing the limits. A 35-year-old playing the less demanding game of baseball or professional basketball will need to take some games off, and they do so more than younger players.

Sure, the WNBA can't be happy with Taurasi choosing to sit, but how can you blame an employee for choosing to skip games that pay one-quarter as much as other games? To which employer does she owe more?

If the WNBA wants players to play every game, they should be paying them as much to do so as their competition -- which for a variety of reasons they don't. But that's not Taurasi's problem ...

The football comparison doesn't really work, I don't think. The season is much longer in terms of the calendar and only has 18 or so games. Veteran players will often sit out a game, which would be comparable to sitting out two WNBA games.

I tried to keep up with their Russian team to see how Alba Torrens is playing, and Taurasi got a fair bit of rest games over there. A lot of times she only played their EuroLeague game and not the Russian league game (same with Griner and Meesemann).

Seriously? Healthy pro athletes don't rest except in baseball, where the season is like nine months long and they play a ton. If you need to take games off when you aren't injured in a short season. . .that's lame. Seriously. Working stiffs are dropping a hundred bucks to park, get decent seats, and have a hot dog and beer, and they get treated to Phoenix without their two best players?

That is selfish. Injury is one thing, but just taking a game off. . .she needs to retire.

Glad I sold my tickets.

In the NBA, older players take games off on a regular basis -- happens in baseball too. No different here ...

In this case, Phoenix is acknowledging this game is a loss, and moving on. They could have played DT 33 minutes and improved their chances to win from, say, 5% (without her and Griner) to 10%, say. OK, 15%, three times better -- still makes sense to me.

Do we really think baseball players or NBA players would be taking days off if their season consisted of only 34 games?

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this issue, but the comparisons to the men seem a bit ill-fitting.

The raw number of games played must include the year-round total, which is clearly much more than 34 for these women. And it's also about how much recovery time there is between games. 34 games with two games a week is a lot different than 34 games with three or four games a week.

I disagree that we have to take the full year into account. This is about playing in the WNBA. If they need to take a year off (or even part of a year off) more power to them. But the option exists, like all the Lynx elders, to not play overseas.

To compare it to the men, if they only played 34 games, do you think the coaches/owners would be okay with them taking days off when every game matters, because they played in some other league during the off season?

There are good reasons for players to rest in the WNBA, and there are legitimate arguments why this is bad. But the situations between the men and women are so different that I just feel using what the men do, especially in other sports, as an example for the women is problematic.

I mean, if we are going to use male sports, how about football? Would a coach be okay with a player taking a game off for rest, even though it is a much more violent and injury ridden sport?

I don't think the issue from the player's point of view is what league the games are played in, but rather the overall impact of the schedule on her body and earnings, both present and future.

It looks to me like a player like Taurasi plays around 70 games a year, counting playoffs, pretty much equally split between overseas and WNBA. She makes four times as much for the overseas game, from what I gather, so clearly missing those does not make financial sense in terms of her contract.

For a 25-year-old, a 70-game schedule seems reasonable; for a 35-year-old, it's pushing the limits. A 35-year-old playing the less demanding game of baseball or professional basketball will need to take some games off, and they do so more than younger players.

Sure, the WNBA can't be happy with Taurasi choosing to sit, but how can you blame an employee for choosing to skip games that pay one-quarter as much as other games? To which employer does she owe more?

If the WNBA wants players to play every game, they should be paying them as much to do so as their competition -- which for a variety of reasons they don't. But that's not Taurasi's problem ...

The football comparison doesn't really work, I don't think. The season is much longer in terms of the calendar and only has 18 or so games. Veteran players will often sit out a game, which would be comparable to sitting out two WNBA games.

I tried to keep up with their Russian team to see how Alba Torrens is playing, and Taurasi got a fair bit of rest games over there. A lot of times she only played their EuroLeague game and not the Russian league game (same with Griner and Meesemann).

That is something from the last couple of years. They have to rotate their foreign players. Normally Taurasi was never in that rotation but now that she has become older they want to rest her more.

Also people shouldnt forget that the guys travel in private planes with all the luxury you can think of while the women have to deal with a lot longer flight times and the comfortlevel is way down.

You could rest Taurasi a couple times during the wnba season to keep her fresh for the playoffs or you could do what Reeve does with Whalen and only play her 24 minutes per game. Problem is that the Mercury will lose that way and the Lynx dont with their deep bench..

_________________"Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson were and are the dynamic duo. They're the one-two punch. They're all the clich�s possible to describe people that perfectly complement each other, who make each other better and also bring out the best in the team." �Karen Bryant

You could rest Taurasi a couple times during the wnba season to keep her fresh for the playoffs or you could do what Reeve does with Whalen and only play her 24 minutes per game. Problem is that the Mercury will lose that way and the Lynx dont with their deep bench..

PHX guard depth isn't deep? They have myrtle's fluffy bunny, who seems like she's having a possibly career year, and Turner, who I'm tempted to talk deal. Talbot resembles a guard, and is on pilight's ROY noms. Currie has guard capabilities. Seems kind of deep to me.

_________________Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

You could rest Taurasi a couple times during the wnba season to keep her fresh for the playoffs or you could do what Reeve does with Whalen and only play her 24 minutes per game. Problem is that the Mercury will lose that way and the Lynx dont with their deep bench..

PHX guard depth isn't deep? They have myrtle's fluffy bunny, who seems like she's having a possibly career year, and Turner, who I'm tempted to talk deal. Talbot resembles a guard, and is on pilight's ROY noms. Currie has guard capabilities. Seems kind of deep to me.

Yes because those players average the same kind of numbers as Taurasi The dropoff from Whalen to Montgomery is a lot less then from Taurasi to Turner or FLB offensively. Also the Mercury have 2 big scoring options in Griner and Taurasi and then a lot of role players. When you take Taurasi off the floor for long stretches then its very easy to focus all your defensive attention on Griner and let the rest beat you.

_________________"Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson were and are the dynamic duo. They're the one-two punch. They're all the clich�s possible to describe people that perfectly complement each other, who make each other better and also bring out the best in the team." �Karen Bryant

You could rest Taurasi a couple times during the wnba season to keep her fresh for the playoffs or you could do what Reeve does with Whalen and only play her 24 minutes per game. Problem is that the Mercury will lose that way and the Lynx dont with their deep bench..

PHX guard depth isn't deep? They have myrtle's fluffy bunny, who seems like she's having a possibly career year, and Turner, who I'm tempted to talk deal. Talbot resembles a guard, and is on pilight's ROY noms. Currie has guard capabilities. Seems kind of deep to me.

Yes because those players average the same kind of numbers as Taurasi The dropoff from Whalen to Montgomery is a lot less then from Taurasi to Turner or FLB offensively. Also the Mercury have 2 big scoring options in Griner and Taurasi and then a lot of role players. When you take Taurasi off the floor for long stretches then its very easy to focus all your defensive attention on Griner and let the rest beat you.

What's the dropoff from Whalen to Taurasi?

When you can get 18 pts from a "role player", I don't think you're hurting too bad.

Next excuse...

_________________Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

You could rest Taurasi a couple times during the wnba season to keep her fresh for the playoffs or you could do what Reeve does with Whalen and only play her 24 minutes per game. Problem is that the Mercury will lose that way and the Lynx dont with their deep bench..

PHX guard depth isn't deep? They have myrtle's fluffy bunny, who seems like she's having a possibly career year, and Turner, who I'm tempted to talk deal. Talbot resembles a guard, and is on pilight's ROY noms. Currie has guard capabilities. Seems kind of deep to me.

Yes because those players average the same kind of numbers as Taurasi The dropoff from Whalen to Montgomery is a lot less then from Taurasi to Turner or FLB offensively. Also the Mercury have 2 big scoring options in Griner and Taurasi and then a lot of role players. When you take Taurasi off the floor for long stretches then its very easy to focus all your defensive attention on Griner and let the rest beat you.

What's the dropoff from Whalen to Taurasi?

When you can get 18 pts from a "role player", I don't think you're hurting too bad.

Next excuse...

You are funny. Before the season everybody was saying that the Mercury had one the weakest benches if not the weakest in the league and now all of a sudden they have a deep bench

The Mercury go as far as Griner and Taurasi can drag them. Simple as that.

_________________"Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson were and are the dynamic duo. They're the one-two punch. They're all the clich�s possible to describe people that perfectly complement each other, who make each other better and also bring out the best in the team." �Karen Bryant

That would be a terrible attitude if in fact it was part of the reasoning.
The team with the older legs should be the ones worrying about the return matchup, especially when they're the ones who have flown twice, to Phoenix's once.
The Mercury have an irrationally large fear of the Lynx, and crap like this only serves to reinforce it IMO.

She had better not be participating in a meaningless All Star game if she's going to bail on a real game.

But you know she will. It'll probably be the same as 2014. She starts, they want her to shoot, she hits or miss, and then tells Reeve she wants to sit on the bench for the rest of the game. It's not like she can bail out of it to be honest. The fans voted her in there and she just became the League's leading scorer.